The Scots-based Subsea UK trade association takes its ‘roadshow’ to London for the very first time tomorrow (12 November) to show local companies in south-east England how the £9 billion subsea sector has revolutionised the way in which oil and gas is recovered from the North Sea.
Often likened to “NASA on the seabed”, the roadshow will provide an in-depth overview of the sector, covering how technology has evolved over the years to meet the demands of oil producers as they move to harsher and more complex environments in order to recover the remaining reserves in the North Sea.
The one-day introductory course has been run in Aberdeen recently and was developed to share useful insights into the subsea industry both from a UK perspective and as a global sector, looking at how subsea fields are developed, and how subsea systems are designed, installed, operated and decommissioned.
Organised by Aberdeen-based Subsea UK, the workshop is delivered by Alistair Birnie, Professor of Subsea Engineering at the National University of Singapore.
Neil Gordon, Chief Executive, Subsea UK, said: “The origins of subsea go back as far as 1940. However, until 1978, subsea systems were quite rudimentary and certainly not suited to the demands of current production systems, nor the environment.
“All that changed in 1978 through the introduction of what was considered at the time to be highly innovative game changing technology, largely pioneered in the North Sea which is why the UK leads the way around the world in subsea technology and expertise.
“Today we see projects exploiting valuable reserves in water depths extending to some 3,000 metres in harsh and highly complex environments.”
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